In 1965, singer songwriter Michael Murphey left his Texas home and moved to California to pursue his dream of becoming a recording artist.

There was no music scene in Texas at the time.

After years of hard work, major publisher Screen Gems, brought him in to work alongside their songwriters such as Carole King, Neil Diamond, Neil Sedaka and many others.

He was on his way.

He loved the mountains, beaches, forests and deserts of California.

But he lived in LA, shrouded in smog, navigating LA freeways. 

So he left West Hollywood for a mountain town called Wrightwood just north of Los Angeles high above the smog.

Shortly thereafter, Michael is working in LA and is awakened one morning by the San Fernando Earthquake of 1971.

It only lasts 12 seconds, but it’s felt as far away as Las Vegas, Nevada.

The earthquake results in the deaths of 65 people and injures over 2,000

It collapses freeway overpasses and causes entire homes to slide off hills.

80,000 residents are evacuated from the area.

That’s when Michael realizes that it's time for him to go back to Texas…Austin, Texas!

When Michael settles into Austin, he moves into an old abandoned motel with his bandmates Gary P. Nunn, Bob Livingston, Craig Hillis and Herb Steiner.

Michael names his band the Cosmic Cowboy Band.

He's in the right place at the right time, and his career as a performing artist begins to take off.

While playing in the Rubaiyat coffee house, ground zero for Texas Music, he's discovered by Bob Dylan's producer Bob Johnson and offered a major label record deal.

This discovery leads to Michael releasing his first internationally acclaimed album, "Geronimo's Cadillac."

It's the first major record released by an artist based in Austin, Texas.

Michael and his band become the founders of the Austin Music Scene.

Other artists like Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark show up and the "Cosmic Cowboy” movement takes shape.

Michael finds himself in a position where he's become a trendsetter, but Michael avoids trendiness and rides as fast as he can for the mountains of Colorado, where he can't imagine anyone following him.

His new record label doesn't like it…but it's where his heart is leading him, so he follows it.

Not long after Michael returns from South Dakota, Columbia Records tells Michael they want him to make another album.

He agrees, but wants to record the album near his new home in the mountains of Colorado.

So he isn't sure where he can record it.

And that's when he discovers Caribou Ranch, legendary recording studio where Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Dan Fogelburg and a host of others made albums in the tall pines on a ranch near Boulder, Colorado...

...and it's only one hour from his new house.

This is where he records the songs on the Blue Sky Night Thunder album.

And one of those songs was…“Wildfire.”

Michael's producer doesn't think it could become a hit song because it doesn’t sound like what's popular at the time, like the Bee Gees or the Sex Pistols.

But when Michael invites the kitchen staff of Caribou Ranch in to listen to the song, some of them start crying.

That’s when Bob Johnson turned to Michael and said...

"Uh oh, Murph you've got a song that's making people cry. Maybe this should be a single."

When Blue Sky Night Thunder is released in 1975, a radio station in Milwaukee begins playing “Wildfire.”

Just one station.

People start calling in from all over the place requesting to hear it again.

They tell other people about it…and it spreads like wildfire…all the way to #1 on the charts.

In less than 6 months, Michael goes from playing small clubs and venues into playing big stadiums like Red Rocks Amphitheater, which is filmed and made into a nationally broadcast TV special and the album rapidly climbs the charts, too.

The President of Columbia Records asks Michael to come to New York.

Michael arrives in his fringed mountain man coat and cowboy hat and the President hands him a plaque with a gold record in it - the "Wildfire" single - and tells him...

"You have just received what is probably the last Gold 45 RPM single that will ever be awarded.”

The single eventually goes platinum and "Wildfire" becomes one of the most played songs in music history.

In early 2025, Michael finds out that country music superstar Cody Johnson is interested in recording a version of “Wildfire”.

This happens just after “Wildfire” inspired a feature film starring Moses Brings Plenty and Michael Martin Murphey called “Wildfire: Legend of the Cherokee Ghost Horse”.

Michael is so excited with the sound of the new version of “Wildfire” with Cody Johnson he decides to do new versions of all the songs on Blue Sky Night Thunder featuring other guest artists.

So he calls up his son Ryan Murphey, and asks him to produce it.

The tracks are cut and completely remade using modern recording technology that didn't exist back in 1975…

Except for just a couple of things...

he used the original microphone that was also used on the recordings 50 years ago at Caribou Ranch.

And the guitar his grandfather gave him when he was 16 years old - the guitar he played on the original recording of “Wildfire”.

He started the recording with just a guitar and vocals - just like he always has.

Then he called in the best current musicians in Nashville to play the other parts.

Sierra Hull agrees to do a version of "Carolina in the Pines” and Max Gomez agrees to do a version of "Desert Rat."